Apple employee Dhirendra Prasad gets 3 years jail for stealing $17 million from company

Dhirendra Prasad, a former Apple employee has been sentenced to three years in federal prison and ordered to pay nearly $33 million for defrauding the company in a double-billing scheme. The ex-employee conned Apple out of more than $17 million over a period of seven years.

Prasad was employed by Apple in 2008 and worked as a buyer in Apple’s Global Service Supply Chain for the most part of his tenure. His key responsibilities area included purchasing parts and services for Apple from vendors.

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Prasad pleaded guilty of defrauding Apple of more than $17 million. He started his scam in as early as 2011 by receiving kickbacks, generating fake invoices, stealing parts, and causing Apple to pay for items and services it never received. The fraud that cost Apple more than $17 million came into light during an internal audit after which he was fired in 2018. He was subsequently charged and pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud.

“Prasad was given substantial discretion to make autonomous decisions to benefit his employer,” federal prosecutors and Internal Revenue Service investigators was quoted from his statement by CNBC. “Prasad betrayed this trust, and abused his power to enrich himself at his employer’s expense.”

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Apart from being sentenced to prison, Prasad has also been ordered to give up assets worth $5.5 million, pay a fine of $8.1 million, and make payments of $17.4 million to Apple and $1.9 million to the IRS as compensation.